I don't know how people do this in 6 hours round trip! We left the Onion Valley parking lot at 8:30, made Bench Lake by 10:00, then climbed in increasingly overcast skies to the summit just before 3:00. As soon as we made the summit, thunder started and flashes of lightning were in the air. We climbed up the ridge on the north face as directly as we could, choosing to go over obstacles rather than around them. Much of the climbing we did was 3+, some, I believe, was 4th class. The trudge back along the southeast ridge was a real pain. I would not want to go up this way. We finally found University Pass (full of snow) and glissaded down to the sound of thunder every few minutes. We were all beat at this point, and the talus walk to the point above Robinson Lake was tedious. We finally made it to the car at 8:00pm, stopped in Lone Pine for pizza and back home by 1:00 am. All in all, a very enjoyable day with some fun climbing.

I climbed with my son Matthew, and a friend, Steve (59 years old!), who had never climbed before in his life. When I asked him to join us, he thought I was talking about a hike...

Climbed this with my buddy on the last snow free day of the year. Drove up to Onion Valley the night before and woke up to freezing temps (which never rose above freezing) and clear skies but a breeze from the west which carried an occasional flake(forecast said showers by end of day). Robinson Lake was frozen over (without snow) so we could see through the ice, what a beautiful sight. By University Pass it had begun spitting snow. We summitted at 2pm and were chased down by increasing snow. By the time we made the car it was covered by an inch of snow. An incredilbe, memorable hike which we can add to our shared summits.5hrs up 2.5hrs down. (Thanks Glenn)

Attempted this peak last year via University Pass but ran out of time. Came back this year and had no problem via the North Face. Descended to Kearsarge Lakes via the pass Northwest of the peak. The moraine above the Southernmost Kearsarge lake really sucked. Definitely won't go that way again.

An epic dayhike, with partner Vladimir. In the morning the sky was overcast with lots of dark clouds, but by noon the weather improved. The north face rib route is full of loose scree in many places, but route-finding was straight-forward. Near the summit block the ridge traverse was a lot of fun, we squeezed through two windows then were delighted to find a small summit with nice exposure. Largest one-day elevation gain I have done so far. On the return leg we were almost stymied trying to find a cross-country route from Lake 3460m to Matlock Lake in the moonless night.

A group of 5 (San Diego, LA, Big Bear) climbed the peak in unstable weather conditions. We had a basce camp @ Bench Lake (10800 ft). Started @ 5:15 am, reached 13300 ft (pre-summit ridge) @ 10:30 am. We traversed the snow field below the summit ridge and above the huge drop-off (looks similar to the one on Polemonium) and signed the summit register on 11:15 am. The weather was very warm (~70F) and we saw a couple of recent avys around. The view from the summit is great as it dominates the whole area. Enjoyable climb, though the last section on the summit ridge should be classied as class 3+ with the given snow conditions.